A few weeks ago, we mailed you your new 2019 Farm Sanctuary Membership Card with our deepest gratitude.

I hope you received it and enjoyed meeting Bonnie: the young cow whose remarkable journey took her from a farm, where she narrowly escaped being sold for slaughter ... to the frozen woods of upstate New York, where she survived for nearly a year with the help of a compassionate neighbor and some friendly deer ... and finally, to Farm Sanctuary’s New York Shelter, where she is today thriving in one of our special needs herds.

Today, I want to introduce you to another one of our rescued animal residents: Amber sheep, a survivor of the medical research industry. But, before I do, I need to make another request for your renewed support.

Farm Sanctuary can only provide our more than 1,000 shelter animals like Bonnie and Amber with the specialized, lifelong care they need and deserve through the steadfast support of compassionate members like you.

Your support helps animals like Amber, who was once used in cancer research at an animal hospital. Every year, thousands of lambs and other animals are used in medical research and often subjected to painful, invasive procedures. Once they are no longer of value to the research program, most of these animals are sold off for slaughter.

Amber only avoided becoming another unnamed, unnoticed victim of this industry because one of the students in the laboratory took the time to see her for who she really is: someone, not something.

Amber’s human friend could not bear the thought of this sweet lamb being sent to auction. Because of the disease she carried, she would not have been used for breeding but instead sold for slaughter. The student’s intervention saved Amber’s life. She asked Farm Sanctuary if we could take Amber, and we eagerly agreed to give her a happy new life at our New York Shelter.

When Amber was ready, we introduced her to her new flock. She was nervous at first, but took quickly to her new sheep family and drew confidence from the friendships she formed. She is now happily settled into the flock — her past life as a “research lamb” long behind her.

Amber, like all of our shelter residents, has been through so much. But these animals are safe for life and will never again know anything but love, care, and compassion — thanks to kind-hearted and generous Farm Sanctuary supporters like you.

In addition to helping us rescue more animals, your renewed support will help provide each of our shelter residents with the individualized care he or she needs to thrive ... advocate for policies to stop factory farm cruelty ... and empower more people to see farm animals as individuals deserving of kindness and dignity.

There are so many things we can do to make life better for farm animals. But every action Farm Sanctuary takes to nurture and care for our shelter residents like Amber and Bonnie, while bringing transformational change to the farming industry, depends on the generous support of dedicated members like you.